We Have Many Complaints About This Taiwanese Animation Version Of Lane Kiffin Getting Fired … SLIDESHOW, Engage

Rick Chandler

9:11 pm, September 30th, 2013

The fine folks at Next Media Animation have given us many special gifts over the years: their work on the Tiger Woods mistress scandal alone should have won a Nobel Prize. But we have a few hard questions for our Taiwanese friends regarding their latest effort, seen above, focusing on the firing of Lane Kiffin. Let’s begin.

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1.This is Sparta!

Instead of Kiffin being fired in an airport parking lot, which actually happened and is naturally funny on its own, NMA has him being kicked out of a plane while in mid-air. This transforms Kiffin from a villain to a victim, in my opinion. Also, why would they lower the boarding ramp instead of tossing him out the door?

2.Cougar is actually a lion.

Near the beginning of the video, NMA cites the Trojans' embarrassing loss to "middling Washington State" as one of the reasons Kiffin was fired. But they depicted the Cougars with the animal you see to the left, which is not a cougar, but a lion. Notice the shape of the head, and black ball of fur on the tail, which North American cougars do not have.

Also, the LA Coliseum is now a domed stadium, I guess.

3.This one's in English.

A large portion of the charm and comedic value of NMA videos comes with the narration, which has always been available in Chinese and English versions. We always preferred the Chinese one, with English subtitles (see example left), because that one always best conveyed NMA's rather exotic, outside-looking-in approach to American sports news. But the Kiffin one is only available in English, apparently -- at least that's the only version they sent us. Major bummer.

4.Rome? Ancient Greece? Where are we?

As we know, the nickname Trojans is derived from the (historical but also largely legendary) people of Troy, a city in what is now Turkey, which fought the Greek city states in the Trojan War. According to Homer, this occurred some 3,000 years ago, centuries before Rome was founded. Yet, here we see a Roman (emperor?) giving a thumbs-down to a Trojan soldier in a Roman Colosseum setting.

Plus, Romans never gave the "thumbs down" to anything in gladiatorial games: that's a myth. Thumbs up actually meant death (as in, spear him in the neck), and a thumb to the side meant life (as in, lay down your weapon).

5.Mississippi State's mascot is a werewolf.

Former Mississippi head coach Ed Orgeron was named as USC's interim head coach, and I suppose the still to the left depicts Mississippi State biting him in the ass (Orgeron had a 10-27 record as head coach of the Rebels). How hard could it be, however, to draw up a convincingly scary bulldog? No, NMA went werewolf for some reason.

6.No mention of the real reason USC sucks this season.

Pete Carroll got out of Dodge before his cheating shenanigans got the Trojans on probation, and basically hamstrung any successor for at least the following three seasons.